Sandy Petersen, the original designer of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game and now one of owners of Chaosium, has returned to writing for the game with an all-new anthology of modern day adventures. Petersen’s Abominations, currently available as a PDF with a hardcover edition due early 2018, contains five one-shot games that include ready-to-play characters allowing players to dive straight in.

Each scenario in this collection began as original one-shot games. Sandy explains it's always expected he runs "something new, something unpublished" at the conventions he attends, so he devises one or two new scenarios a year expressly for this purpose.

As these scenarios were originally only intended for Sandy's own use—often with a major part of the adventure "inside my skull and not actually written down"—he brought award-winning RPG writer Mike Mason on board to help prepare them for publication. As Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu line editor and co-author of the most current edition of the rules, Mike was particularly well-placed to help bring Sandy's twisted imaginings to print.

"Mike took my wooly notes and turned them into tightly-plotted masterpieces", said Sandy. "We worked together on this, talking for hours to work out details and ensure everything went well. Mike would write up the adventure from my outline (and sometimes more detailed material), and I would edit it. Most of the adventures in this book went through several revisions before we were both satisfied."

Each one-shot scenario is designed for one or more sessions of play. Advice for getting the most out of the scenarios is provided, as well as suggestions for expanding the scope of the adventures or making them part of a campaign. And this is but the first such collaboration of its kind: there are more "Tales of Sandy Petersen" yet to be unleashed!

The adventures featured in Petersen’s Abominations are as follows…

Pancea - ZyMedBio Corp is a pharmaceutical development company. The company is relatively new, having been incorporated just three years ago. In the last five months, the company has begun drug trials on human subjects for a range of clinical issues. Currently, ZyMedBio is undertaking a Phase 2 study where human subjects are being given doses of a new drug called “Zylactis.”

Behind a miraculous cure for many ills hides a loathsome truth.

Hotel Hell - In 1924 an obscure and ill-regarded painter from Europe, named Johan Schiegl, came to the Seven Stars Hotel in British Columbia. Seeking solitude far away from hustle and bustle of the Roaring Twenties, Schiegl came to capture the remote and rugged wilderness of the Canadian landscape in his paintings…

An inheritance in the remote wilderness of British Columbia conceals a hideous secret that may spell the end of the world.

Mohole - A team of observers is called in to conduct an audit and report on an experimental and top secret drilling project designed to penetrate the Earth’s crust and release a previously untapped source of energy. Set on a repurposed North Sea oil platform, those involved discover that there are some depths that should never be plumbed…

An experimental drilling project delves too deep and brings the attention of an ancient unspeakable horror.

The Derelict - Within the icy waters of the North Atlantic the discovery of a missing reefer ship, the Groenland Tropisch, stranded on an iceberg brings considerations of a substantial salvage reward, driving an attempt to rescue the ship. But in so doing, an ancient horror is stirred…

A final journey brings a remarkable discovery and a hidden terror.

Voice on the Phone - As youngsters, Diego Lopez and his younger brother Juan were close. While Diego had the street smarts, Juan was more academically minded and his parents pushed him to make something of his life away from the streets and gangs of Dallas. Of course, Juan just wanted to be like his brother. Both boys seemed destined for a gang lifestyle; however, Juan’s life was to take a different turn…

EN World Reviews

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